With Louisiana as the state with the third highest number of poor people, many of them working full-time, Northern & Central Louisiana Interfaith leaders are devising new ways to tackle poverty. Says Pastor Clayton Moore, "If you work, how is it that you're poor?"

NCLI leaders have launched Another Chance to Succeed (ACTS), modeling itself on Project QUEST in San Antonio and NOVA in Monroe, Louisiana. The goal is to train adults into higher wage jobs of at least $15 / hour. ACTS is targeting January 2017 as its start-up date.

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Naming "seven hidden risks" that public funding of a new Adelson-backed Raiders' stadium would bring to taxpayers, leaders of Nevadans for the Common Good publicly voiced their opposition to the plan with a well-attended press conference. Read below for full coverage:

Opponents of Adelson-Backed Stadium Get Little Attention in Adelson-Owned Newspaper, Las Vegas Tribune

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One year after raising the minimum wage for employees of the City of San Antonio (from $11.47 to $13 per hour), COPS / Metro Alliance leaders are celebrating again after the City Council passed a budget that includes a second wage raise to $13.75 per hour. This follows an intense two-year campaign with over 1,000 leaders recently assembling with the Mayor and council representatives to remind them of their commitment to a living wage. When the Mayor made some noise about living wages being an 'outsider's' agenda, leader Maria Tijerina fired back with an editorial reminding her that COPS / Metro is a local organization with a robust constituency.

City Council additionally approved shifting funding for workforce development program Project QUEST out from human services into economic development with its own line in the budget. Funding increased to $2.2 million including $200 thousand to cover tuition for the Open Cloud Academy training developed in collaboration with Rackspace.

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200 Northern Arizona Interfaith Council (NAIC) leaders, with the Prescott College Social Justice Human Rights Program, assembled with all six candidates of Arizona Legislative District 1 to push for increased funding of public schools across the state. Said Tom Benson, "If we want our community and state to be a desirable place to work, raise a family, as well a retire it must be supported by a strong education system from Pre-K through college."

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After a campaign that included educating County Supervisors about the economic (and life) impact of JobPath workforce development program, leaders of Pima County Interfaith won a 18% increase in funding for the program, from $423 thousand to $500 thousand. Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 for the increase after Pastor Steve Springer of Dove of Peace Lutheran Church and Lindsay Leonard, a JobPath graduate, spoke.

Former students like Patty Popp credit JobPath for helping them bridge the gap between minimum wage work and a living wage career. After training for an associate's degree in radiologic technology, she kept on advancing to her current position as Director of Clinical Operations at Radiology Limited. Her story can be read in the first article below.

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In a press conference covered by the New York Times, National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal, Together Baton Rouge leaders repudiated recent violence and called for careful and intentional dialogue about community divisions and policing. "We condemn violence of any kind..." said Lee Wesley, the pastor of Community Bible Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. During the press conference, leaders stood behind the lectern wearing "Together Baton Rouge" buttons and hoisting signs saying "We refuse to be divided."

TBR will soon hold meetings about community policing to address "how we employ people in our law enforcement agencies, how we vet them" and more. Together Baton Rouge also plans to address this issue with all mayoral candidates running this fall.

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Baton Rouge, LA - With seventy 'Together Louisiana' leaders in attendance, Governor John Bel Edwards issued an Executive Order overhauling the nation's largest state program of corporate subsidies, the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP).

Reforms include requirements that impacted local tax authorities approve the subsidy, including municipal government, school boards and law enforcement; exemptions demonstrate a Return on Investment (ROI) for new jobs or retention of good jobs; and that subsidy applicants sign contractual agreements based on promised investments and local hires.

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Thanks to the intervention of COPS / Metro Alliance leaders that stood with San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD)'s lowest paid workers and the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, the SAISD Board unanimously approved a wage increase of 20% for the district's lowest paid , from $10/hour to $12/hour.

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Eight months after the passage of a wage theft ordinance that enabled the City of El Paso to refuse government contracts to employers that violated wage theft laws, EPISO and Border Interfaith leaders celebrated the passage of a stronger ordinance which allows the city to revoke the operating license of any business that refuses to pay their workers. Taking the lead on Lift Up El Paso, a coalition of non-profits and congregational members of EPISO and Border Interfaith, EPISO and Border Interfaith leaders leveraged the support of Bishop Mark Seitz of the El Paso Catholic Diocese and local restaurant owners and construction companies to compel the City to pass this stricter ordinance. In several cases, owners were shocked there was even a fight to ensure their competitors don't skirt labor laws. Said EPISO leader Eloiso de Avila, "This is an important step for El Paso to show that way for Texas...that we care about employees and that we are fair."

EPISO and Border Interfaith furthermore secured the support of Texas State Representative Mary Gonzalez, county commissioners, other Texas state legislators and the local franchise owner of Chick fil-A. Organizational pressure prevailed over lobbyists flown in from Austin to try to block the new law.

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Arguing that the "stress of poverty" has a toxic effect on children's developing brains, COPS / Metro leaders stormed a San Antonio Independent School District Board meeting asking for wage raises for the lowest paid district workers, including bus drivers and cafeteria workers, to at least $13 per hour. A low wage job, said Maria Tijerina, "undermines a child's ability to learn."

Cafeteria manager Vanita Rodriguez spoke on behalf of her employees, revealing that every one she works with holds down at least two jobs to make ends meet. As the parent of 7 and the grandparent of 24, most of which are SAISD students, she knows that poverty hampers children's capacity to learn. COPS/Metro joined forces with the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel to raise this issue with the School Board and met with all 7 trustees prior to the board meeting.

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